Posts filed under ‘Exercise Equipment’

On Saturday, I witnessed a young man really getting his sweat on in the gym. He was laying on his stomach on a bench, with a band looped under the frame of the bench and up over the back of his head. This band was providing the resistance for what was, at best, a clear misunderstanding of the term “chin-ups”; he was lifting his head in a nodding motion, with the apparent goal of strengthening his neck. He looked extremely silly, but he was partaking in an emerging trend in the weight room – accommodating resistance.

I love me some Vans Slip-Ons. Especially clean ones. As a result, I have quite a few pairs that aren’t dead, but aren’t quite fresh enough for first-line duty.

Of course, there are tons of good reasons to go barefoot. It improves running form, and a whole host of other good stuff. That’s all the time I’ll spend convincing you to ditch the standard shoes, because most of you are probably already on board here.

For my barefooting, I love Vibram Five-Fingers. As a result, I get funny looks from everyone.

A little while back, I posted about an awesome sprint workout using just an old belt, a rope, and my sandbags. Well, the belt broke. I had a couple of ideas for better designs, then I pulled out my collection of defunct belts to find a perfect candidate at the ready.

What do an old leather belt, a rope, and two sandbags have in common? They are all part of my new favorite workout.

Over break, my dad and I discovered some football blocking sleds left unattended, and they were a lot of fun. So as soon as I got back to school, I found a way to simulate the same workout. It’s just a rope tied to two sandbags and looped around an old belt. And it is a ton of fun:

These sprints are insanely tiring. I recommend one or two unweighted sprints to warm up, and take plenty of time to catch your breath between runs. Also, start slowly with the rope tight – the idea is not to jerk the bags around, just to smoothly drag them.